Noteworthy Projects

Contributing Paper Artist

I was honored to be selected as a contributing paper artist for Design
and Pattern in Decorated Papers: Wet and Dry Techniques

This limited edition portfolio book was published by Hand Papermaking, Inc.
in 1994. Twenty-one artists from around the world were selected to
contribute samples of their work for the entire edition. The first
of six such portfolio books, it is considered to be a survey of some of
the finest handmade paper art being produced at that time.

Noteworthy Projects

Gutenberg Bible

I had the opportunity to clean a single page of the Gutenberg Bible owned
by the University of Missouri. OK, this really wasn’t one of the most
challenging projects that I’ve undertaken. But it’s something which
never fails to impress people, me included. The Gutenberg Bible has
such cachet to those who know history and books that it was a real thrill
to have the opportunity to perform the routine cleaning needed.

Noteworthy Projects

Land-grant Documents

Land-grant documents dating back as far as the Revolutionary War often
require cleaning and flattening.
These are usually on vellum (animal parchment) until about 1820, paper
after that. Typically, they have been folded multiple times, sometimes
have a wax or metal seal attached by means of a ribbon which pierces the
document. Almost always, these need to be placed in a humidity
chamber for a period of several hours to a couple of days in order to
allow the document to relax sufficiently that it can be unfolded and then
dried under mild restraint prior to further treatment.

Noteworthy Projects

Laura Ingalls Wilder Bibles

I did a complete rehabilitation of both the family bible and the personal bible
owned by Laura Ingalls Wilder for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic
Home & Museum. This required the books to be uncased from their covers,
taken apart, page repairs done, then resewn and put back into the original covers
(which had been extensively repaired).

Noteworthy Projects

Mark Twain’s Library

I love Twain, and was going to do my MA Thesis on him before I got sucked into
the Iowa Center for the Book program. So when the State Historic Site
people contacted me and asked me to perform conservation work on a number
of the pieces in their collection, it was a melding of two great loves.
Other than that, the work was fairly routine, and typical of what one would
see of 19th century volumes.

Noteworthy Projects

Cleaning and repair ofhistoric personal letters

Now, to be honest, I can't even tell you how many times I've had occasion
to work on such collectible items. Usually, these items need minimal
cleaning, de-acidification, and preparation for archival framing or
encapsulation in Mylar-D. Sometimes they need more extensive care,
such as that usually required for land-grant documents. But they're
a great part of our history, and I always enjoy having the opportunity to
make sure they survive for others to appreciate.